Kadarius Toney should have jumped at the prospect of playing for a creative like Brian Daboll had Daniel Jones banged into the Giants’ compound at the start of the volunteer mini-camp.
After his tumultuous rookie season, in which Toney’s Law ousted Murphy’s Law, there was every reason for him to show up and grow up and put himself in the good graces of the new regime rather than forcing Daboll to answer questions about his whereabouts and Forcing GM Joe Schoen to entertain trade offers.
Kadarius Toney finally showed up to take a look at the new playbook.
Now it’s time for him to grow up.
It’s about time he once and for all ignored what he reads on social media and be the kind of New York soccer giant Daboll and Schoen want in their massive rebuild: Smart, tough, dependable.
Remember what Dave Gettleman said after he drafted Saquon Barkley when asked why he wasn’t interested in trading second overall picks?
“People call you and want the second choice of the keg for a bag of donuts, a hot pretzel, and a hot dog.”
Presumably, Schoen would be able to fetch a little more than a bag of donuts, a hot pretzel, and a hot dog for Kadarius Toney. But a mid-round pick for a 23-year-old first-rounder?
Better Schoen should make every effort to save him.
Kadarius Toney runs with the ball during his 189-yard performance against the Cowboys. Getty Images
Oh, and remember what Gettleman said about Odell Beckham Jr. before committing to not trading him and then trading him less than a year later?
“You don’t stop with talent.”
Toney is a talent. When he has the ball in his hands he can take your breath away. You can’t take your eyes off him. He can quit on a dime and switch defenders.
That is, if you can get him on the field and keep him there.
“He’s a dynamo if we’ve seen him in a couple of games. …New Orleans and then Dallas said, ‘Wow.’ Like Must See TV stuff with the ball in hand,” Giants legend Carl Banks told The Post. “Until he puts a work there, I’m not crowning him the second coming of Gale Sayers or anyone else. Or the first coming of Kadarius Toney. Because I don’t think he’s arrived.”
If and if he ever arrives, Banks would love to see him arrive with the Giants.
“It’s all up to him, though,” Banks said. “I think he controls that just like everyone else.”
The previous Giants regime drafted Toney last year with the 20th pick, in part because it secured the Bears’ 2022 first-round winner, in part because the Eagles traded to the G-Men to steal WR DeVonta Smith … and for Part because nothing was more important to the franchise than Daniel Jones taking that elusive next step and making a difference to it.
And a year later it still is.
Jones will almost certainly have a proper tackle on Andrew Thomas in the first round on Thursday night, so that’s it. But in Big Blue’s wide receiver room, neither Kenny Golladay, the Price free agent, nor injury-plagued Toney (39 receptions, 420 yards in 10 games) caught a single touchdown pass from him in 2021.
Daboll is the right coach to reach out to Toney, not just because he has a proven track record of putting offensive players into successful positions, but because he is a relationship builder. The same tough love Daboll gave Josh Allen could be beneficial to Toney’s development.
Daboll is a soccer player.
It’s up to Toney to convince him, Schoen and skeptical Giants fans who see him as a lightning rod that being Kadarius Toney, No. 89, means more than being Yung Joka, the rapper. Before the draft, there were anonymous concerns that Toney’s commitment to the game was hardly Manning-like, but the Giants told us they checked him out thoroughly and were sure this was a good boy from a good family. In what little exposure I had to him last season, I liked him. As far as I could tell, so did most of his teammates.
Trading Toney during the draft or before June 1 would cost the Giants $2.3 million to cap space, with a $5.5 million dead cap penalty. Schoen broke his back from Day 1 and put the Giants in position where they only have $5,588,274 in cap.
“You can give me 1000 different definitions of what it means to be a professional,” said Daboll almost two months ago. “Being on time, working hard, all the things we talk about. All these players and all the new coaches, including me, it’s a blank slate.”
Kadarius ToneyBill Kostroun/New York Post
If Kadarius Toney has one last chance to clean the slate and change the narrative, this is when, this is the moment, the lights come on. He’s not doing himself any favors by taking to Instagram and posting things like, “You’re hurt your own frigging feelings tryna hurt mine idgaf about nothing.”
It’s up to Kadarius Toney, from this day forward: show you’re excited about your pro career. Show that you love your new head coach. Show that you love the Giants. He’s not the only 23-year-old who needs to grow up. Eli Apple was never a giant.
But wait, there’s good news: Toney hasn’t deleted the team from his Instagram!
Showing up is just the first step.
Growing up is the big next step.